Confab wants marketing boards reintroduced across country

The national conference on Wednesday called for the reintroduction of marketing boards across the country.

This was one of the amendment carried out by the delegates while considering the reports of the Committee on Agricultural and Water resources during plenary in Abuja.

On policy sustainability, the committee’s recommendation that agricultural policies being done by an outgoing government be continued by the incoming government was thrown out by the conference.

Though they said it was wrong for any government to abandon projects, they however said it would be wrong to tie the hands of the new government.

Writing under Policy Sustainability, the committee’s recommendation says, “This has been a major bane of Nigeria’s development process across the board and is due largely to two factors.

“They are corporate attitudinal culture of the quest for self-adulation, a new government coming in would not want to continue with a policy initiated by its predecessor no matter how laudable that policy may be, just to be seen to be initiating something different or new.

“The general impatience of Nigerians which does not allow good programmes to reach maturity.”

The committee mentioned the case of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, which it described as a strategic government intervention in land development.

It added that this programme was “arbitrarily scrapped after being on ground for only seven years and even when it was being applauded.”

Giving reasons for its recommendation, the committee added that it was inundated with requests from all categories of stakeholders for its resuscitation.

It added that agricultural policies and programmes by their nature were generally long-term and take time to mature and that it requires patience and time to consolidate.

“Nigerians need to imbibe and assimilate the culture of patience and discipline in this regard ,” the committee added.

On the other hand, the delegates have called for an enactment of a law that would prohibit the slaughtering of animals in the presence of other animals.

This was one of the amendment carried out by the delegates while considering the reports of the Committee on Agricultural and Water resources during plenary in Abuja.

Delegates were of the option that it was wrong for animals to be slaughtered in the presence of other animals, an act they described as cruel and not proper.

To avoid this, they said that abattoirs must be constructed in such a way that would make the slaughtering of animals hidden from fellow animals.

It was also agreed that abattoirs must be built in a way that would make them “animal friendly.”

The delegates said, “The design of abattoirs must be in such a way that is conducive to animals. Then animals must not be slaughtered in the presence and view of other animals.”